European Adventure

Such a terrible terrible night sleep again.
My bunk is like a sauna. At 4:30am I finally snapped and opened up the window. Relief was slow to come. I had spent the last few hours tossing and turning climbing up the walls trying to find a cool patch.
Will didn't come wake me at our designated get up time and as I was so tired I decided to wait for him instead of going to wake him up.
We left around 10:15 - we didn't have tooth paste so our breath has probably been delightful all day - we got some before we got on the bus just so we didn't forget later on. We also got orange juice because now his throat is sore too. #vitaminc
I did the most DISGUSTING phlegm cough this morning. I opened my mouth to show Will and he said he thought it was gum hahah😂😷😷
We found the bus stop and I was stress free because every single bus that stops there goes to the station so there was no chance of a mistake. It was 3€ each again. We were offered a deal a while back to a bulk pack of rides which brought the cost down to 1.5€ each but we didn't think we would be catching the train that often. Our bad. It would have been a good investment.
We had subway for breakfast. I think I've said this before but our subway is 200 times better. They have so few choices.
We went to buy tickets (originally she pull up the price and it said 50€ we were like uhhmmmmmm?!?!! But then we got the under 26 price which dropped it down to 24€ so that was much much better! ) and were told we were going to have to change trains, to go to platform 8 and our train left in 5 minutes. I was too busy focusing on the "our train was leaving soon' aspect that I didn't think to ask when we needed to change. We figured this small problem once we were already seated on the train.
Will was more stressed that me about it. Unlike Buses they can't just go anywhere, they have to stay on the track.
I could feel his stress so I asked the lady infront of us for help, she asked someone else, they chatted for a while and then she told us she was going to have to ask the conductor for us.
Turns out we had to get off at the last stop (that's what i had assumed anyway) I thanked her a lot and Will visibly relaxed.
We got off at the stop - can't pronounce - then found our new platform. We had a 30 minute wait until we were on our way to Iepor.
When we arrived we walked toward the In Flanders fields museum.
We were given a poppy bracelet each and a free book.
The wrist bands were awesome - as you entered you had to enter details about yourself such as name, age and country/state - this information was noted and changed what information was given to you through your bracket.
I was told war stories of people my age from my area whenever I registered my bracket against the interactive signs. It was clever technology.
The museum was fantastic. Not only education but thought provoking and emotion triggering.
As much as I enjoy reading about it I think I learn far more through the picture displays.
I don't remember dates and each countries overall roll, movements and strategies. What I will always remember is the photos which as the saying goes - each speak 1000 words.
There were uniforms, personal items, a conscription ballad box, machinery and so much more to list.
There was an old tree that I found fascinating too.
It died naturally but in its rings you can see the change of colour during the period of war and the effects it had on it.
There was few mentions of Australia as we fell under the British but we did get our own name sometimes and I felt such pride.
We found a program that lists all soldiers who lost lives and we found both men.
It has a slideshow of the names of all men who lost their lives 100 years ago to the day.
It was very moving. I watched it for a long long time and it never repeated. (Not that I expected the number to be small but it really brings the point home) it was just one days worth of casualties.
There was side section the the museum for the Australian photographer Frank Hurley.

One aspect of the museum which was really good is that it had actors in little films talking around the place. A lot I didn't understand but one movie theatre section I sat in and watched for a while was in English. It was 3 separate nurse/doctor type people from the war explaining their experiences.
It was very up front about the truth of the horrors they saw.
One thing that has stuck with me is one nurse saying one man sobbed and sobbed and sobbed when he was receiving awards in his hospital - they hung them above his bed. She said he sobbed because he knew If they were praising his so high that meant he was going to die. "And he did not want to die"
The museum called us a taxi - we got in and it drove us to the cemetery that Grandads uncle is in. Strand military cemetery. On the way he drove us through the Menin gate which is a memorial for the missing.
He drove and drove and drove and I started to panic looking at the meter. It ended up costing us 50€ to get out there.
We couldn't figure out how to get into the cemetery but we hadn't gone all that way to miss out so we checked that we weren't going to intrude on any graves before we jumped over the ledge/fence.
We knew he was buried block 1 row A.
We assumed that meant he would be in the front row at the start only he wasn't.. we walked up and down rows looking for Private John Joseph Crowe until finally I realized the ordering system - it was back to front. We walked to the back corner and we finally found him. It was a very moving moment. What I found to be truly beautiful was that a stranger had left a message on his grave. I'm assuming from what we saw it was a school trip and they each had one cross to give out and this boy has picked the lonely grave in the corner. It was special. We walked around and it struck me just how young everyone was. The oldest I saw was 41 and 34, everyone else was either a teenager or early- mid 20's.
It saddens me greatly just how many haven't been identified.
The graveyard was peaceful. We didn't talk much - just took everything in.
It had a section of 6 or so graves to the side where it said that they thought these men were somewhere In the cemetery- they just didn't know which grave.
On the way out we found the proper door.... 🙄
Oops.
We walked down the road with no idea how we were getting home. We were roughly 14 km from the museum, that much we knew. We decided to walk in the right direction until the next town, have food then figure it out.
We came across other cemeteries and walked through them as well. One plot had 4 Victoria cross winners in it.
It had a big memorial listing many many names of those who died but location is unknown.
It also had headstones for 5 soldiers who's graves were destroyed by another war.
We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.
We came to hill 63 apparently - well there was sign looking at a corn field?
We also found a big watch tower thing (Irish peace park?) which was opened in 1998 by the Irish president, Belgian King and Queen Elizabeth the second. It's a symbol of peace.
I enjoyed (not in a happy way) just looking out into the fields and imagining the carnage. It was hard to imaging the lands and dead and destroyed as they were back then. They are lush now. Signs of the war are still evident with hidden bunkers here and there.
We came to a town but nothing was open - WE GOT SO LUCKY - A BUS TURNED UP GOING TO IEPOR STATION!! We jumped on so relieved!
We got to the station, went to find Will food then jumped on the first train - got kicked out of first class...didn't even realized there was hardly any difference.
We swapped trains and at first had a whole carriage to ourselves until the most drunk human came stumbling on.
He rambled to us for about 30mins. He tried so very hard to speak English but goodness it required patience on our part.
He was off his head and kept repeating himself and focusing on Kangaroos
"Yes yes yes" he said after every 5 words.
He graciously offered us both a house to stay for free next time. He had playboy bunnies tattooed on his hands hahaha
I really enjoyed him but it required concentration hahah.

Back to Brugge station, onto a bus and now back at the hostel 🙌🏼🙌🏼
I am so damn sore.
I think my ass is bruised from riding a bike yesterday - I'm considering taking a photo just to check. I'm sure there are going to be big black welts. Haha
My right foot hurts, my legs hurts, and my back hurts.
Whinge whinge whinge.

I have also lost one of the key cards. Not even my fault I've had nowhere to put it to keep it safe.
Well obviously my fault but still.
I can't keep it in my wallet which is locked away at night when I need it to go wee - I think it must have fallen down to the bed below but I can't find it 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
So tired - we go to Netherlands tomorrow :D
No clue how we are getting there yet but we will hopefully figure it out :) haha
It was a good day.Les mer